I thought it was interesting that, last night in a special press conference in Dallas before the Redskins-Cowboys NFL game, Jerry Jones – yes, that Jerry Jones – came off sounding like the voice of reason and compromise. He was trying to convince those in attendance that the Washington football team’s owner wasn’t what he seems to be.

The subject was the name of Daniel Snyder’s team, which remains under debate. The Dallas team owner offered up this on Snyder’s behalf: “It would be a real mistake – a real mistake – to think Dan, who is Jewish, has a lack of sensitivity regarding anybody's feelings.”

OK, then. So, we can assume that maybe Snyder’s dismissive posture about his team’s nickname emanates from a position that everyone should have a thicker skin. I guess it would be OK with him, then, if someone bought a major pro athletic franchise and renamed them the Jewboys?

Oh, my, that was insensitive, wasn’t it?

See, sensitivity is actually this simple: It’s about putting oneself in the place of others. It’s about empathy. And absolutely nothing about Snyder’s stance on the issue so far indicates he possesses a shred of those qualities.

His feelings on continuing to use the team name “Redskins” were nicely summed by this statement last spring: “We will never change the name. It’s that simple. NEVER. You can use caps.”

This is a statement bathed in the arrogance of one accustomed to power. Snyder is one of those guys used to having his way. He thinks he’s going to get it this time because he always thinks so; that’s his default position. So, he simply dismisses the issue out of hand with the disdain of one who commonly makes unilateral decisions.

Maybe he’s right. I doubt many of his fans care; most of them only want a winning football team. His major sponsors haven’t budged yet. The NFL hasn’t really taken a stance.

From a purely personal standpoint, I could not care much less myself what Snyder does with his team’s nickname. I’m not a Native American. “Redskins” doesn’t personally insult me.

But I don’t own the team. And, as the owner of a franchise in the most popular sport in our country and in its capital city, it could be argued Snyder takes on a responsibility greater than just another guy on the Metro. He becomes a figurehead.

So, he should, at least in public, express some understanding and empathy. He could spend a few minutes in thought about how others might feel rather than relentlessly pursuing his own bottom line.

Here’s how NBC’s Bob Costas termed “Redskins” last night: “It’s an insult, a slur, no matter how benign the present-day intent.”

Costas, of course, actually thinks about such things. No matter whether you agree with him, you have to appreciate that much about him.

And when asked about his little treatise during NBC’s telecast last night in which he questioned whether the name should be used anymore, Costas added this Monday morning on The Dan Patrick Show: “'Redskins,’ we’ve become used to it because it’s been in common usage for so long. But if you take a step back and you think of what the equivalent of ‘Redskins’ would be if applied to an African-American or an Hispanic, an Asian or any other ethnic group, then you have to start thinking of it a different way.”

That’s right. Apparently, Daniel Snyder can’t think that way, though. So maybe he needs to be smacked over the head with an obvious parallel to his own group. I can’t speak for anyone of Jewish heritage but I’d guess “Jewboys” would be about the same on the insult-o-meter as Redskins, wouldn’t it? Not quite a vile, hateful slur, just sort of a jocular and vulgar one. Maybe someone should suggest that as his team’s new nickname.

As an athletic team nickname? Preposterous, you say. Jewish people are neither fierce nor athletic, right? Not like them crazy barefoot Native Americans, always ready to charge onto the warpath.

See, Dan? Stereotypes cut both ways on multiple planes, don’t they?

Costas went on to employ a hypothetical: “Or put it in these terms: If you were to walk into a gathering of Native Americans, on a reservation or you ran across a family of Native Americans in a restaurant, and you began conversing with them, would you feel comfortable referring to them as ‘Redskins’ over and over again? Once you take a step back, it’s very obvious.”

Yes, it is. If you are capable of empathy as someone like Costas is but someone like Snyder clearly is not.

What also becomes obvious is that Native Americans are pretty much dead-last in the social pecking order in this country. Nobody cares what they think. They are almost devoid of political clout or power. No one must tread lightly around them. They’ve been trampled from the time Europeans set foot upon a continent that was once theirs.

When I hear about an issue such as this one, I think of power. Because it’s never the righteous that get things done, it’s the mighty.

Black people progressed in the civil rights era of the 1960s because they became more powerful. Women, gays, name the group and they never accomplished anything because their cause was just, only because their active numbers and clout became too powerful to ignore.

I don’t know if Native Americans will ever reach that threshold in this country. It will be up to the expressed opinions of the rest of us to alter the bottom-line thinking of the NFL and its sponsors.

Because that’s clearly the only language they and Daniel Snyder understand.